Marina Dwellers

Now that we've rested and recovered from our sailing trip to Oak Harbor we naturally are excited to get working on the boat but our schedules make it hard to get there together. Mark went over to the boat and paid our marina fees and got us gate key cards so we we can come and go as we please and then hooked us up to power before he headed off to work. After I finished the kids school I headed over to start cleaning it out. This process is going to take a lot of time and elbow grease.

Thanks to being left at anchor and unattended for months on end our boat is very dirty, a lot of junk and broken things need to be removed, all the cushions and mattresses need to be condemned and thanks to a leaky hatch up front some sanding water in the V birth has facilitated mold growth. I spent a few hours hauling out as much as I could, I filled up three construction sized garbage bags full of junk but they were too heavy for me to get off the boat and up the dock so I hauled out the gross mattresses and cushions and left them in the cockpit for Mark to remove later.

After I'd filled up all available deck space with junk I called it quits, peeling off my respirator and goggles I sat on deck and actually got a look around at the marina. A grey day which is the norm here in whidbey, the air touched with the crispness of fall but not cold enough yet to be uncomfortable. At first I felt it was very quiet. There was no one else around, just boats sleeping in their slips and its odd but you have this impression that you need to be quiet as possible so you don't wake them. But as I sat longer I heard a lot of noises and realized the marina was actually very noisy in a subdued way. Water lapping against hulls, sea gulls sqwaking as they fly over head, ropes and rigging clinking against their masts, flags flapping in the breeze, the dock creaking under your feet, a slight electric hum from wires, fenders squeaking between boats and their births... But they were nice sounds, calming and special I suppose, they are the kind of sounds you need to be quiet to hear or else they get tuned out and fade off into the background.

But my favourite discovery was about fifty feet from our slip is a small log wall and I noticed about twelve seals sleeping on it. They were so still at first I didn't know what they were but I saw some heads lift up and look about before flopping lazily back on their bellies, I can't help but smile and feel blessed that we are finally here, the kids are going to love it.

I need a better camera.